Scooby-Doo (Franchise)
This article is on the franchise. For the artcile on the title Character, See: Scooby-Doo (Character). Scooby-Doo is an American cartoon series based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969. This Saturday morning cartoon series featured four teenagers — Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers — and their talking Great Dane dog named "Scooby-Doo" who solve mysteries involving supposedly supernatural creatures through a series of antics and missteps. Hanna-Barbera and its successor Warner Bros. Animation have produced numerous follow-up and spin-off animated series and several related works, including television specials and telefilms, a line of direct-to-video films, and two Warner Bros.–produced feature films. Some versions of Scooby-Doo feature different variations on the show's supernatural theme, and include characters such as Scooby's cousin Scooby-Dum and nephew Scrappy-Doo in addition to or instead of some of the original characters. Scooby-Doo was originally broadcast on CBS from 1969 to 1976, when it moved to ABC. ABC aired the show until canceling it in 1986, and presented a spin-off featuring the characters as children, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, from 1988 until 1991. The original series format was revived and updated for The WB Network's Kids' WB programming block as What's New, Scooby-Doo?, which ran from 2002 to 2006. Another Scooby series, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue, began running on the The CW network until 2008. The current Scooby-Doo series, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, premiered on Cartoon Network in July 2010. Repeats of the series are broadcasted frequently on Cartoon Network and Boomerang '''in the United States and other countries. Development In 1969, parent-run organizations, most notably Action for Children's Television (ACT), began vocally protesting what they perceived as an excessive amount of gratuitous violence in Saturday morning cartoons during the mid-to-late 1960s. Most of these shows were '''Hanna-Barbera action cartoons such as Jonny Quest, Space Ghost and The Herculoids, and virtually all of them were canceled by 1969 because of pressure from the parent groups. Members of these watchgroups served as advisers to Hanna-Barbera and other animation studios to ensure that their new programs would be safe for children. Fred Silverman, executive in charge of children's programming for the CBS network at the time, was looking for a show that would revitalize his Saturday morning line and please the watchgroups at the same time. The result was The Archie Show, based upon Bob Montana's teenage humor comic book Archie. Also successful were the musical numbers The Archies performed during each program (one of which, "Sugar, Sugar", was the most successful Billboard number-one hit of 1969). Silverman was eager to build upon this success, and contacted producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera about possibly creating another show based on a teenage rock group, but with an extra spice: the kids would solve mysteries in between gigs. Silverman envisioned the show as a cross between the popular I Love a Mystery radio serials of the 1940s and the popular early 1960s TV show The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Hanna and Barbera passed this task along to two of their head story writers, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, and artist/character designer Iwao Takamoto. Their original concept of the show bore the title Mysteries Five, and featured five teens: Geoff, Mike, Kelly, Linda, Linda's brother "W.W." and their dog, Too Much, who were all members of the band "Mysteries Five" (even the dog; he played the bongos). When "The Mysteries Five" were not performing at gigs, they were out solving spooky mysteries involving ghosts, zombies, and other supernatural creatures. Ruby and Spears were unable to decide whether Too Much would be a large cowardly dog or a small feisty dog. When the former was chosen, the options became a large goofy German Shepherd or a big shaggy sheepdog. After consulting with Barbera on the issue, Too Much was finally set as a Great Dane, primarily to avoid a direct correlation to The Archies (who had a sheepdog, Hot Dog, in their band). Ruby and Spears feared the Great Dane would be too similar to the comic strip character Marmaduke, but Barbera assured them it would not be a problem. Takamoto consulted a studio colleague who happened to be a breeder of Great Danes. After learning the characteristics of a prize-winning Great Dane from her, Takamoto proceeded to break most of the rules and designed Too Much with overly bowed legs, a double chin, and a sloped back, among other abnormalities. By the time the show was ready for presentation by Silverman, a few more things had changed: Geoff and Mike were merged into one character called "Ronnie (later renamed "Fred", at Silverman's behest), Kelly was renamed to "Daphne", Linda was now called "Velma", and Shaggy (formerly "W.W.") was no longer her brother. Also, Silverman—not being very fond of the name Mysteries Five — had renamed the show Who's S-S-Scared? Using storyboards, presentation boards, and a short completed animation sequence, Silverman presented Who's S-S-Scared? to the CBS executives as the centerpiece for the upcoming 1969–1970 season's Saturday morning cartoon block. The executives felt that the presentation artwork was too spooky for young viewers and, thinking the show would be the same, decided to pass on it. Now without a centerpiece for the upcoming season's programming, Silverman turned to Ruby and Spears, who reworked the show to make it more comedic and less frightening. They dropped the rock band element, and began to focus more attention on Shaggy and Too Much. According to Ruby and Spears, Silverman was inspired by Frank Sinatra's scat "doo-be-doo-be-doo" at the end of his recording of "Strangers in the Night" on a flight to one of the development meetings, and decided to rename the dog "Scooby-Doo" and re-rechristen the show Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?. The revised show was re-presented to CBS executives, who approved it for production. The CBS Years (1969-1973) Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? (1969-1970) The Scooby-Doo Franchise began in 1969 with the TV show, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? which premired on TV September 13th, 1969. The original voice cast featured veteran voice actor Don Messick as Scooby-Doo, Top 40 radio DJ Casey Kasem as Shaggy, actor Frank Welker as Fred, actress Nicole Jaffe as Velma, and musician Indira Stefanianna Christopherson as Daphne. Scooby’s speech patterns closely resembled an earlier cartoon dog, Astro from The Jetsons (1962–63), also voiced by Messick. Seventeen episodes of Scooby-Doo were produced in 1969. The series theme song was written by David Mook and Ben Raleigh, and performed by Larry Marks and Paul Costello. Each episode featured Scooby and the four teenaged members of the Mystery, Inc. gang: Fred, Shaggy, Daphne and Velma, arriving to a location in the "Mystery Machine" and encountering a ghost, monster, or other supernatural creature, who was terrorizing the local populace. After looking for clues and suspects and being chased by the monster, the kids come to realize the ghost and other paranormal activity is actually an elaborate hoax, and - often with the help of a Rube Goldberg-like trap designed by Fred - they capture the villain and unmask him. Revealed as a flesh and blood crook trying to cover up crimes by using the ghost story and costume, the criminal is arrested and taken to jail, often saying something to the effect of "...and I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!" A ratings success, Scooby-Doo was renewed for a second season in 1970-71, for which eight episodes were produced. Seven of the second season episodes featured chase sequences set to bubblegum pop songs recorded by Austin Roberts, who also rerecorded the theme song for this season. With Stefanianna Christopherson having married and retired from voice acting, Heather North assumed the role of Daphne, and would continue to voice the character through 1997. The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972-1973) In 1972, new one hour episodes under the title The New Scooby-Doo Movies were created. Don Messick, Casey Kasem, Frank Welker, Nicole Jaffe '''and '''Heather North '''reprise their roles as '''Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Velma '''and '''Daphne. '''Each episode featuring a real or fictitious guest star helping the gang solve mysteries, including fellow '''Hanna Barbera characters such as Josie and the Pussycats and Speed Buggy, and celebrities such as Sandy Duncan, The Addams Family, Cass Elliot, Phyllis Diller, and Don Adams. Also it later on featured many more - The Harlem Globetrotters, the Three Stooges, Don Knotts and Batman & Robin each appeared at least twice on the show. Hanna-Barbera musical director Hoyt Curtin composed a new theme song for this series, and Curtin's theme would remain in use for much of Scooby-Doo's original broadcast run. After two seasons and 24 episodes of the New Movies format from 1972 to 1974, CBS began airing reruns of the original Scooby-Doo, Where are You! series until Scooby moved to ABC in 1975. The ABC Years (1976-1991) The Scooby-Doo Show (1976-1978) On ABC, the show went through almost yearly format changes. This is the first Scooby-Doo show to make to Three Seasons. Don Messick, Casey Kasem,Frank Welker and Heather North returned to voice Scooby, Shaggy, Fred and Daphne. Nicole Jaffe didn’t return to voice Velma. Pat Stevens provided the voice instead. For their 1975–1976 season, new episodes of Scooby-Doo were joined with a new Hanna-Barbera show, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, to create The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour. The show became The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Show when a bonus Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! rerun was added to the package in November 1976. Sixteen new Scooby-Doo episodes, in the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! format, were put into production for the show's ABC debut. Nicole Jaffe had retired from acting in 1973, and Pat Stevens took over her role as the voice of Velma. The rest of the voice cast remained the same. The 1976-77 season also introduced Scooby's dim-witted country cousin Scooby-Dum, voiced by Daws Butler, as a recurring character. The Scooby-Doo characters also made a handful of guest appearances on episodes of Dynomutt. For the 1977–78 season, The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Show became the two-hour programming block Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics (1977–1978). In addition to eight new episodes of Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo also appeared during the All-Star block's Laff-a-Lympics series, which featured 45 Hanna-Barbera characters competing in Battle of the Network Stars-esque parodies of Olympic sporting events. Scooby was seen as the team captain of the Laff-a-Lympics "Scooby Doobies" team, which also featured Shaggy and Scooby-Dum among its members. Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics was retitled Scooby's All Stars for the 1977–78 season, reduced to 90 minutes when Dynomutt was spun off into its own half-hour. Scooby's All-Stars continued broadcasting reruns of Scooby-Doo from the previous two seasons, while new episodes of Scooby-Doo aired during a separate half-hour under the Scooby-Doo, Where are You! banner. After nine weeks, the separate Scooby-Doo, Where are You! broadcast was cancelled, and the remainder of the 16 new 1978 episodes debuted during the Scooby's All-Stars block. The Scooby-Doo episodes produced from 1976 to 1978 were later packaged together for syndication as The Scooby-Doo Show, under which title they continue to air. Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (1979) In 1979, Ten years after the premire of the original series, The Scooby-Doo characters first appeared outside of their regular TV series format in Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood, an hour-long ABC television special aired in prime time on December 13th 1979. The special revolved around Shaggy and Scooby's attempts to have the network move Scooby out of Saturday morning and into a prime-time series, and featured spoofs of then-current TV shows and films such as Happy Days, Superman, Laverne & Shirley, and Charlie's Angels. That same year, Scooby's tiny nephew Scrappy-Doo was added to both the series and the billing, in an attempt to boost Scooby-Doo's slipping ratings. The 1979–1980 episodes, aired under the new title Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo as an independent half-hour show, succeeded in regenerating interest in the show. Lennie Weinrib voiced Scrappy in the 1979-80 episodes, with Don Messick assuming the role thereafter. Marla Frumkin replaced Pat Stevens as the voice of Velma mid-season. Media TV Series TV Specials #Scooby-Doo Arabian Nights (1994) #The Scooby-Doo Project (1999) #Night of The Living Doo (2001) #Scooby-Doo! Spooky Games (2012) #Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays (2012) #Scooby-Doo! and The Spooky ScareCrow (2013) #Scooby-Doo! and The Mecha Mecancail Mutt (2013) Movies TV Movies #Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood (1979) #Scooby-Doo Meets The Boo Brothers (1987) #Scooby-Doo and The Ghoul School (1988) #Scooby-Doo and The Relucant Werewolf (1989) Animated Direct-To-DVD Movies #Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) #Scooby-Doo and The Witch's Ghost' '(1999) #Scooby-Doo and The Alien Invaders (2000) #Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase (2001)' ' #Scooby-Doo! and The Legend of The Vampire (2003) #Scooby-Doo! and The Monster of Mexico (2003) #Scooby-Doo! and The Loch-Ness Monster (2004) #Aloha, Scooby-Doo! (2005) #Scooby-Doo! in Where's My Mummy?' '(2005) #Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy! (2006)' ' #Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! (2007) #Scooby-Doo! and The Goblin King (2008) #Scooby-Doo! and The Samurai Sword (2009) #Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo (2010) #Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare (2010) #Scooby-Doo! Legend of The Phantosaur (2011) #Scooby-Doo! Music of The Vampire' '(2012) #Big Top Scooby-Doo!' '(2012) #Scooby-Doo! Mask of The Blue Falcon (2013) #Scooby-Doo! StageFright (2013) Live-Action Movies #Scooby-Doo (2002) #Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004) #Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (2009) #Scooby-Doo! Curse of The Lake Monster (2010) Puppet Movies Main Artcile: Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map ((22222(2013(9((2013)(2013)(2013)(2013) Animated Direct-To-DVD MoviesAnimated Direct-To-DVD MoviesVideogames #'Scooby-Doo’s Maze Chase' (1983) #'Scooby-Doo' (1986) #'Mystery '(1995) #'Mystery' (1995) #'M'ystery of the Fun Park Phantom (1999) #'Classic Creep Capers' (2000) #'Mystery Adventures 1 '(2000)' ' #'Mystery Adventures 2 '(2000) #'Mystery Adventures 3 '(2001) #'Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase' (2001) #'Scooby-Doo' (2002) #'Night of 100 Frights' (2002) #'Case Files 1' (2002) #'C'ase Files 2 (2003) #'C'ase Files 3 (2003) #'Mystery Mayhem' (2004) #'Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed' (2004) #'Unmasked '(2005) #'Who’s Watching Who' (2006) #'F'irst Frights (2009) #'Spooky Swamp' (2010) Category:Articles that need exspanion